WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Here’s a good reason to have caller I.D. and voice mail. Telemarketing fraud is making a major comeback, says the National Consumers League. In more than 36 percent of all consumer complaints in 2013, victims were contacted by phone.

That’s up from about 25 percent in 2012.

If you don’t recognize the phone number, consider that you don’t have to answer the phone. If it’s legitimate, the caller will probably leave a message.

Why in the age of the Internet is fraud by phone rising?

It’s because scammers are using Internet calling software to peddle their schemes from practically anywhere on the globe, and they deceive Caller ID systems to make their calls appear to come from U.S. numbers.

”Scammers are finding new ways to use the Internet to contact high volumes of consumers on the phone,” said John Breyault, NCL’s vice president of public policy on telecommunications and fraud. ”The days of dialing numbers and calling consumers one by one are long gone. Today, scammers can call millions of people with the click of a mouse.”

The most frequently reported scams from 2012 remained the same in 2013, with nearly 75 percent of all complaints reported to Fraud.org falling into one of three categories: fake check scams (24 percent), Internet merchandise scams (23 percent), and fake prizes/sweepstakes (22 percent).

If you’ve been victimized by a scam in the past -- guess what -- your name could be on a ”sucker list” consumers identified as easy prey, the NCL says.

Con artists buy, sell, and trade lists of victims amongst themselves so that they can be re-contacted. Scammers using the refund and recovery fraud attack will pitch victims through phone calls and direct mail, claiming that they can help recover lost funds for a fee. In 2013, this was the fastest-growing type of non-Internet scam reported to NCL’s Fraud.org campaign.

Here’s an interesting twist. The NCL says ”a positive trend” in 2013 was a shift in how victims pay con artists. In 2013, nearly 35 percent of all victims reported losing money to a scam with a credit card, up from just 18 percent in 2012. Victims who pay with credit cards can more easily recover lost funds than those who pay via wire transfer service, the most common way pay for offers that turn out to be fraudulent.

”Credit card transactions are the safest way for consumers to pay for products since they have the ability to dispute fraudulent charges with their credit card company,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL executive director. ”While consumers paying scammers using a wire transfer service was still the No. 1 way con artists were paid in 2013, the number of reports involving a credit card payment nearly doubled. This is a sign that consumers are better protecting themselves and hedging against the risk of a potential scam.”

Here is a look at the most-reported frauds in 2013:

Fake check scams: The consumer is paid for work or an item he is trying to sell with a phony check and instructed to wire money back to the buyer.

Internet merchandise sales: Goods purchased are never delivered or are misrepresented.

Prizes/sweepstakes/free gifts: Requests for payment to claim prizes that never materialize.

Advance fee loans: False promises of business or personal loans, even if credit is bad, for a fee upfront.

Phishing/spoofing: Emails pretending to be from a well-known source ask consumers to enter or confirm personal information.

Recover/refund companies: Scammers contact victims who have already been defrauded claim to be able to help them recover the lost funds.

Scholarships/grants: For a fee, a ”search company” offers to conduct a search for scholarships or grants. The list they provide is worthless.

Office ad space/directory listings: Fake invoices sent in response to telemarketing calls asking for confirmation of business or organizational information.

Computer equipment and software: Scammers claim to offer ”technical support” for computer problems and charge a fee to fix a non-existent problem.